Cathartic it may be, but as long as our analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains in this form of arrested development, childishly blaming Bibi for all ills, it only masks the deeper problems and perpetuates a danger for us all - that we learn no lessons and so heighten the probability of making further mistakes. And that none of us can afford.

Thinking about Syria and reading the commentary about whether anything can be done I am reminded that the biggest lesson I have learnt as an MP and as CEO of BICOM is this: as an international community we constantly overestimate what we can achieve.

One of Labour's historic achievements was the creation of the welfare state. But we can't run away from the fact that the law of unintended consequences got to work, and we ended up with a dependency culture rather than a responsibility culture.

I shed no tears for Stephen Hester, the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. But Hester's public humiliation - and, though the two individuals are very different, also that of Sir-no-more Fred Goodwin - was nothing but a modern-day version of the Roman games.

We need to face some depressing facts about the Arab Spring and develop a robust policy response. While the Arab Spring has opened up opportunities for women in the long-term, in the short-term the google-generation has - for now, at least - been pushed aside by the hard men of the military and the long-established Islamist parties.

The New Year is no time for cynicism. It is a time for thinking creatively about how to helping to bring the parties together in direct negotiations and for sustaining the regional environment that can help keep them there.

The European Union matters deeply but the people of Europe do not want federalism. Not yet, anyway. The beginning of political wisdom is to respect that, back off, listen to the people, and build the Europe they do want, from the bottom up. What is at stake is much more than the European project; it is the credibility and principle of democracy itself.

Permanent vigilance about the health of our democracies is the only guarantee of their survival. Across the political spectrum leading Israeli politicians and commentators are expressing concern at controversial Knesset legislation widely seen as illiberal or anti-democratic.